SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 327 



It is claimed, further, that twenty years is about the age at 

 which apple trees cease to be profitable; at this age they should 

 be dug up, and new orchards — previously planted — should take 

 the places of the old ones. Advocates of this theory seem to 

 forget the fact that test winters have destroyed tiees of all ages, 

 and under all conditions, both in orchards and nurseries, and 

 no one knows beforehand when the next severe winter may 

 repeat the mischief. 



As to seed deterioration, the advocates of that idea cannot 

 prove the statements they make. The fact is, seedlings of the 

 present day are as sound, as robust and as vigorous as seedlings 

 grown fifty years ago, and for use as stocks for propagation, are 

 as valuable as those grown in the days of "ould lang syne," even 

 if they were grown from cider-mill seed. The analogy existing 

 in the laws wnich govern improvement or deterioration, both in 

 animal and vegetable life, hold good as regards the production of 

 new specimens or varieties, but do not exist in connection with 

 the principles of propagation, as practiced in our nurseries, as 

 compared with the growing of live-stock on our farms. 



In animal life we do not propose to graft the body of one indi- 

 vidual upon the legs or feet of another, as we do with trees. Nor 

 do we keep our animals, whether thoroughbred, grade, or scrub, 

 out of doors, rooted to the spot, in all sorts of weather, through 

 heat or cold, wet or dry, as we do our trees. You all will admit 

 with me that if we would house or shelter our fruit trees as we do 

 our animals, we shoukFhave no more of winter-killing. Such a 

 remedy would certainly be a sure cure for that difficulty. 



Why horticulturists will thus beat about the stump in this 

 matter is a thing I do not understand, unless this be attributable, 

 like other short-comings, to the imperfections of the race. But 

 it does seem to me that the lessons of the past ought to teach us 

 the fact that whatever other causes may contribute to the un- 

 timely destruction of our trees, the severe winters we are subject 

 to from time to time are the most direct and prominent ones. To 

 prevent recurrences of these is beyond human power ; to prepare 

 our trees by proper management to resist their damaging effects is 

 our mission. 



No one, who has any experience with top-working such varieties 

 as are not perfectly hardy in this climate, will have failed to 

 notice the remarkable improvement in the capacity of trees thus 

 grown, to resist the injurious effects of hard winters over those 

 grown by the common modes of root-grafting or collar-budding, 

 provided, always, the former were worked upon true "iron-clad," 

 congenial stock; and it is my honest conviction that apple 

 orchards can be successfully grown with most of our old, favorite 

 varieties by this means. The past has shown that it cannot be 

 done otherwise ; especially as the Russians have disappointed us. 

 Some of these latter, however, will make excellent stocks for 



